arts & entertainment

Eying Lisa Loeb

Pop-rocker will perform at Magic Bag.

I

Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

L

isa Loeb combines her pop-rock
performances with fashion state-
ments.
When Loeb sings and plays guitar Dec.
4 at the Magic Bag in Ferndale, she will
include selections from her latest album,
No Fairy Tale, as she showcases a pair of
glasses representing her venture into Lisa
Loeb Eyewear.
"I'll be performing a variety of songs
from all my albums:' Loeb says in a phone
conversation from her California home.
"I usually play mostly my own music and
will include a couple of kids' songs I wrote.
"As my popularity has grown, people
have noticed me for my glasses, and I real-
ized I would love to have the opportunity
to work with an eyewear company with
my own line. That started five years age
The title song from the new album is
about how life can be better than a fairy
tale when it's taken with all the ups and
downs. That kind of life, she explains,

becomes richer than a seemingly perfect
life.
"The '90s," another song from the
album, was composed after Loeb was
asked to write what the decade meant to
her. "Swept Away" has to do with continu-
ing to try even when things are going
down. It was inspired by a documentary
on the life of Joan Rivers.
"I compose during the time of day when
it's a little quieter; says Loeb, 46, wife of
Roey Hershkovitz, who works on music
production for Conan O'Brien's late-night
program.
"That's a little harder to find now that
I have two young children (ages 2 and 4)
and have the regular day-to-day work for
my business. I need to take a breath so
ideas can flow into my brain.
"I mostly work with a guitar, but every
once in a while, when I feel stuck, I move
to my grandmother's piano, which I have
in my house. I find different solutions
when I go to the piano."
Loeb, a Brown University graduate who
has been writing music since her child-
hood in Dallas, appeared with high school

Lisa Loeb

and college bands.
"After college, I moved to New York
City, and a few years after playing lots of
concerts and making more recordings,
my friend Ethan Hawke passed my music
along to the director of the movie Reality
Bites. The song "Stay" was put in the
soundtrack:' she recalls. "It went to No. 1
before I had a record deal."
Loeb started writing children's music
before she was married. Keeping to her
musical style, she came up with different
subjects and more humorous approaches.
Lisa Loeb's Songs for Movin' & Shakin'

combines a book with a CD and is one of
two such projects
Besides collaborating on the music for
a children's musical, Camp Kappawanna,
scheduled for a spring opening in New
York, she is getting ready for the release of
"Light:' a song about Chanukah and the
way she relates to the holiday with hope.
"I decided that over the next year, I'm
putting out one or two songs at a time
instead of albums:' says Loeb, a member
of California's Ohr HaTorah Congregation
and committed to the Camp Lisa
Foundation to provide enriching summer
experiences for kids.
"It's fun to have fresh songs all the time
and be able to record and perform them
without waiting until an entire album is
put together." ❑

Lisa Loeb performs at 8 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 4, at the Magic Bag,
22920 Woodward, in Ferndale. $20.
(248) 544-3030; themagicbag.com .

A Writer's Writer

Berkley author pens new books and teaches his craft.

I Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer

Lawton Publishing, a name recognizing the
location where his main professional inter-
est took hold.
"These are books that I've written over
orman Prady wrote stories at
the past three or four years, and they've
an Underwood typewriter as he
just been sitting here:' Prady says. "I was
was growing up in a
tired of having them sit around
home on Tuxedo and Lawton in
and decided I would do something
Detroit.
with them.
His mother used the type-
"All the books take place in
writer to handle communica-
Michigan, either in the Detroit
tions for B'nai B'rith, and he
area or a small town that I created
was enticed by the technology
and placed in the northern part of
as a way to watch his ideas take Norman P rady
the state. The main characters are
shape before him.
not all Jewish, but many of them
The story ideas continued as technology
are:"
advanced, but his career took him into writ-
One book, Irving Stein's Widow and Other
ing that responded to workaday require-
Stories, holds a collection of tales as well as
ments: articles in newspapers and maga-
Prady's actual recollections.
zines, promotional materials for advertisers,
In the title story, Prady tells about a
communications of nonprofit organizations. woman he considers a typical housewife
Now, at 81 and at home in Berkley, he
of an earlier generation. After becoming a
teaches literary skills to a group meeting
widow, she pursues experiences she believes
regularly in his kitchen and uses available
will bring fulfillment unknown in her past.
time to pursue personal literary projects.
In the novel A Small Town Up North, two
Prady just released six books, fiction and
high school seniors meet and fall in love
nonfiction, as part of his own Tuxedo &
and take on challenges as they try to realize

I

N

80

November 27 • 2014

"I got the idea I could help
writers with their work and
taught adult education in Berkley
their dreams.
and Troy," explains Prady, whose
Other books include
freelance articles have appeared in
and
the novels Butterscotch
many local publications.
other stories
Hair, Saturday Clothes,
"One wintry night, when I was
Norma n n
r ra dy
Everything She Never
driving home from Troy, I wanted a
Wanted and Isabella.
warmer way to do this and started
Another book, Random
the Oxford Writers Group to focus on
Writings, includes a collection of the
creative nonfiction writing."
author's works.
Prady's interest in writing moved along
"I graduated from Central High School
to his son, Bill, who has had a long career in
and went to Wayne State University and
television and currently is a writer and co-
Fordham University in New York," Prady
executive producer of The Big Bang Theory
recalls. "I got a job at the Detroit Times and
in CBS.
was so compelled to work at the newspaper
"I get a wonderful kick out of seeing
that I gave it most of my time and dropped
Bill's work and what he's accomplished:'
out of college a semester short of graduat-
says Norman Prady. "The particular show
ing:'
Bill is working on now comes after many
With experience in general assign-
other shows, and it amazes me that he can
ment reporting and feature writing, Prady
develop these stories week after week, lead-
went on to different work after the Times
ing a staff of writers. It's different from what
closed. He was an assistant to the presi-
I do:'
dent for news and publications at Oakland
University; group creative director at
Campbell-Ewald Co.; vice president and
Norman Prady's books are available
creative director at Stone, August & Co.;
through special orders at bookstores
and vice president and creative director at
and any online bookseller.
BBDO.

Stein's
• Widow

❑